The present invention relates to the field of optical phase retarders and electro-optic modulators.
Conventional quarter-wave plates employ birefringent material, generally crystalline, which is of limited availability and size or cross sectional area. Further, since these conventional devices work in an optical transmission mode, there is no simple means of exacting heat from the area heated by even a moderate power laser beam. Thus the birefringent medium is subject to thermally induced aberrations and, at sufficiently high powers, to optical damage.